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Q-Tran expansion cuts need for outsourcing

Gean Tremaine, president of Q-Tran, Inc. inspects newly mounted LED lights in the Milford-based company’s new expansion.

Gean Tremaine, president of Q-Tran, Inc. inspects newly mounted LED lights in the Milford-based company’s new expansion.

Photo: Jordan Grice / Hearst Connecticut Media

Photo: Jordan Grice / Hearst Connecticut Media

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Gean Tremaine, president of Q-Tran, Inc. inspects newly mounted LED lights in the Milford-based company’s new expansion.

Gean Tremaine, president of Q-Tran, Inc. inspects newly mounted LED lights in the Milford-based company’s new expansion.

Photo: Jordan Grice / Hearst Connecticut Media

Q-Tran expansion cuts need for outsourcing

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With a recent expansion, Milford-based Q-Tran is looking to limit its need for outsourcing.

The lighting manufacturer increased the size of its headquarters at 155 Hill St. to accommodate new machinery for the company’s new “Made in the USA” LED product line.

Q-Tran founder and CEO John Tremaine said the company’s recent expansion and product launch will help support the local economy while also adding to the manufacturing capabilities of the company.

“In the next few months we will be able to proudly put ‘Made in the USA’ on all our products leaving the factory and we will be sourcing all of our material and building all our material in the United States,” Tremaine said.

The expansion added roughly 17,000 square feet to their facility to make way for surface mount technology to allow company employees to connect lights to a circuit board themselves rather than purchasing the products premade or having them made overseas.

Reducing the company’s need for outsourcing has been a few years in the making, according to Tremaine’s son and Q-Tran president Gean Tremaine.

A previous expansion in 2016 saw the company add an encapsulation machine that waterproofed LEDs. Before adding that equipment, Q-Tran would order a similar premanufactured product.

“In 2017, we saw the writing on the wall that we needed to have the ability to build our own destiny,” Gean Tremaine said.

That led Q-Tran to its latest additions in equipment and staff, with chief operating officer David LaVigna joining the company last year.

LaVigna said the push to develop products locally was done for practical reasons.

“We did it because we are ever evolving, and trying to do it all here in the U.S.,” LaVigna said. “We didn’t do it for altruistic or political reasons. We did it because it made sense for us, the company and our quality stance and our belief in vertical integration — making as much of the product in the beginning of it through to the end.”

Q-train moved from Bridgeport to Milford in 2009, and it has seen steady growth since the move. Its employee base has doubled over the last three years to 60 workers, Gean Tremaine said

“Manufacturing our own Q-Tran LED product in the USA using Surface Mount Technology will give Q-Tran a significant advantage in the marketplace,” he said. “With this new technology, we push the limits on design, efficacy and capability of the products we can offer while controlling the quality and lead time of our LED product.”